Sherry Lee hugs her brother-in-law Andy Lee on April 28 after a tornado destroyed her home Sunday on Cemetery Street in Vilonia, Ark.AP Photo/Karen E. Segrave
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Nicholas Lee surveys the damage at his parents home in Vilonia, Ark., on April 28, after a tornado struck the town on Sunday evening. (AP Photo/Karen E. Segrave)AP Photo/Karen E. Segrave
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This photo provided by James Bryant shows tornado damage, Sunday, April 27, in Mayflower, Ark. (AP Photo/Courtesy of James Bryant)
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This photo provided by James Bryant shows tornado damage, Sunday, April 27, 2014 in Mayflower, Ark. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning several tornadoes, including one in a small northeastern Oklahoma city and another that carved a path of destruction through several northern suburbs of Little Rock, Ark.AP Photo/Courtesy of James Bryant
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A vehicle tops a hill along U.S. Route 56 as a severe thunderstorm moves through the area near Baldwin City, Kan., Sunday, April 27, 2014. AP Photo/Orlin WagnerAP Photo/Orlin Wagner
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A flag is tattered in the wind of a severe thunderstorm at a farm credit office near Baldwin City, Kan., Sunday, April 27, 2014. AP Photo/Orlin WagnerAP Photo/Orlin Wagner
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John Ward, an automobile and RV dealer, looks at tornado damage to one of his trucks in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014. At least 16 people died Sunday night in Arkansas as a tornado carved an 80-mile path of destruction. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
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A man walks past a wrecked automobile and RV on Interstate 40 in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning a massive tornado. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
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First responders, volunteers and firemen gather on Main Street in Quapaw, Okla. after a tornado struck the city on Sunday evening, April 27, 2014.AP Photo/Tulsa World, Gary Crow
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Quapaw, Okla., residents survey the damage in a residential neighborhood struck by a tornado on Sunday evening, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning a massive tornado that carved path of destruction through the northern Little Rock suburbs and another twister that hit in Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Tulsa World, Gary Crow)
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Travel trailers and motor homes are piled on top of each other at Mayflower RV in Mayflower, Ark., Sunday, April 27, 2014.A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning tornadoes. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
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Twisted trees and power lines remain in a residential block near Military Avenue following the tornado in Baxter Springs, Kan., Sunday, April 27, 2014. A powerful storm system rumbled through the central and southern United States on Sunday, spawning a massive tornado that carved through Little Rock's northern suburbs and another that hit Oklahoma and Kansas. (AP Photo/The Joplin Globe, Roger Nomer )
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Related

VILONIA, Ark. — Emergency officials were searching for survivors Monday in the debris left by a powerful tornado that carved a huge path of destruction through several Midwestern and Southern states including Arkansas, where at least 15 people were killed.

The tornado that slammed into a town about 16 kilometres west of the Arkansas state capital of Little Rock on Sunday evening, killing at least 15 people, grew to about 800 metres wide and was among a rash of tornadoes and heavy storms that rumbled across the centre and south of the U.S. overnight, ending a lull in violent weather across America with a fury. The National Weather Service warned that more tornadoes, damaging winds and very large hail would strike in parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Louisiana on Monday.

It was among a rash of twisters and violent storms across the Midwest and South that killed 17 people in all on Sunday.

On Monday, tornadoes flattened homes and businesses and flipped trucks over on highways, killing two people in Alabama and one in Mississippi.

Most of the dead in Arkansas were killed in their homes in and around Vilonia, population 3,800. Firefighters on Monday searched for anyone trapped amid the piles of splintered wood and belongings strewn across yards. Hospitals took in more than 100 patients.

The tornado that hit the town and nearby Mayflower was probably the nation’s strongest so far this year on the 0-to-5 EF scale, with the potential to be at least an EF3, which means winds greater than 136 mph, National Weather Service meteorologist Jeff Hood said.

It wrecked cars and trucks along Interstate 40 north of Little Rock. Also among the ruins was a new $14 million intermediate school that had been set to open this fall.

A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Arkansas said he was virtually certain the storm that hit the towns of Vilonia and nearby Mayflower would be rated as America’s strongest twister to date this year.

Meteorologist Jeff Hood said the storm could have been an EF3, with winds greater than 218 kph. He said officials are studying the environmental impact.

Storm ratings for Sunday’s twisters were not immediately available. Before Sunday, the U.S. had not had a tornado rated EF3 or higher since Nov. 17, a streak of 160 days, the fourth-longest on record. This also would be the latest date for a storm rated EF3 or higher. The previous latest big storm for a year was March 31, 2002.

Another twister killed a person in Oklahoma before crossing into Kansas to the north. A suspected tornado also struck in northwest Louisiana.

The Arkansas twister shredded cars and trucks along Interstate 40, the main corridor north of Little Rock. After the storm passed, big trucks tried to navigate through the damage as gawkers captured photos of the destruction.

Late Sunday, emergency workers and volunteers went door-to-door checking for victims and survivors.

Becky Naylor, 57, of Mayflower, said up to 22 people “packed like sardines” into her storm cellar as the tornado approached.

“People were pulling off the highways and were just running in,” said Naylor.

Men held the cellar doors tight to prevent the tornado from ripping them apart.

“It sounded like a constant rolling, roaring sound,” she said. “Trees were really bending and the light poles were actually shaking and moving. That’s before we shut the door and we’ve only shut the door to the storm cellar two times.”

The other time was in 2011, during an EF-2 tornado that followed nearly the same path and killed at least four people.

The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management raised the Arkansas death toll to 16 early Monday — eight adults and two children in Faulkner County, five people in Pulaski County and one in White County.

At a news conference in the Philippines, President Barack Obama sent his condolences and promised the government would help in the recovery.

Sunday was the third anniversary of a day when 122 tornadoes struck parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia and killed 316 people.

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